Lutefisk has a tradition here from medieval times.  It is made from
dried stockfish, ling (Molva Molva), which can be stored indefinitely
and which used to be a valuable food reserve.  It also made it possible
for people in the inland to obey the Catholic (as we were up to 1526)
prescription of fish diet during Lent.  Dried fish does not smell
particularly well.

But you can soak it for a couple of days in soda lye (sodium carbonate)
to get rid of any rancid fats, and then in water, changed daily during
two or three weeks.  That is the form you buy lutefisk these days.
Boil for 15 minutes before you serve it.  The description of access-
ories in the poem is all right.  But what makes me feel the poet
perhaps never saw a lutefisk is that it certainly does not give any
odors, it smells _very_ weakly like clean laundry.

Having grown up with it I like it extremely well -- it is precisely
what you need after all the fat and abundant conventional holiday food.
A delicacy that by far surpasses chemical equivalents like Alka Seltzer
-- I already made a false start with it.  Merry Christmas to you all --
you don't know what you have missed!

Johan Liljencrants
Stockholm, Sweden

 [ I performed at a Norwegian Hall lutefisk dinner event in the Pacific
 [ Northwest.  When I passed by the kitchen the smell of the boiling
 [ lutefisk nearly bowled me over, but the taste at the long dinner
 [ table was fine.  Of course, it was prepared with great love and care
 [ by the Scandinavian ladies.  I ate several servings!  -- Robbie